U.S. Rep. Lynch calls for further arming of Kurdish fighters in Iraq

Thursday

Aug 21, 2014 at 11:44 AMAug 21, 2014 at 11:27 PM

Neal Simpson The Patriot Ledger @nsimpson_ledger

QUINCY – U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch says the U.S. must better arm Kurdish fighters in Iraq if it hopes to turn back the extremist Islamic State militia without sending American troops back onto the battlefield.Fresh from a trip to a refugee camp in Syria, Lynch told business leaders at a South Shore Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday that the Kurdish militia needs weapons, training and intelligence from the U.S. to repel the Islamic State fighters, who have claimed large swaths of Iraqi territory and are believed to have killed an American journalist in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes. Lynch said those airstrikes alone will not be enough to dislodge the group, which is also known by the acronym ISIS.

“You’re not going to defeat ISIS without boots on the ground,” Lynch said, “and I’d prefer that American kids are not the ones wearing those boots.”

The U.S. started bombing Islamic State forces earlier this month and has begun providing rifles and ammunition to the Kurdish militia, known as the peshmerga, but Lynch said the force needs “heavy lethal weapons,” as well as training and intelligence.

“They are tremendously courageous fighters, but they need help,” he said.

Lynch said he has met personally with Kurdish leaders and believes the militia can be trusted with U.S. arms, though he acknowledged that he has seen little support in Congress for further arming the group. He said he would not support the redeployment of U.S. troops in the region under any circumstances.

Lynch appeared at the breakfast one day after returning from a visit to the Adana refugee camp near Syria’s border with Turkey. The camp is home to 12,000 refugees, mostly children, who have fled fighting between opposition groups and the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Lynch also touched on several domestic issues now before Congress, including terrorism risk insurance, so-called “tax inversions,” community bank regulations and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He said it’s not clear which problems, if any, lawmakers would address before the midterm elections and blamed the leadership in both parties for what he called “a real inability to get things done.”

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Neal Simpson may be reached at nesimpson@ledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @NSimpson_Ledger.